Add a Directory to PATH in Linux

-

What is $PATH in Linux

The $PATH environmental variable is a colon-delimited list of directories that tells the shell which directories to search for executable files.

1
2

 ✘ gecheng@A ~  echo $PATH
/Users/gecheng/.jenv/shims:/Users/gecheng/.jenv/bin:/Users/gecheng/.jenv/shims:/Users/gecheng/.jenv/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

Adding a Directory to your $PATH

To make the change permanent, you need to define the $PATH variable in the shell configuration files. In most Linux distributions when you start a new session, environment variables are read from the following files:

• Global shell specific configuration files such as /etc/environment and /etc/profile. Use this file if you want the new directory to be added to all system users $PATH.

• Per-user shell specific configuration files. For example, if you are using Bash, you can set the $PATH variable in the ~/.bashrc file and if you are using Zsh the file name is ~/.zshrc.

1

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Save the file and load the new $PATH into the current shell session using the source command:

1

source ~/.bashrc